Wheelies
Walking off the jetway in Chicago the other night, I hear the gate agent say “It’s not my problem!”. Now I have felt that way on several occasions throughout life, but as I look around and see a woman in a wheelchair with her son standing by her side, I take notice of the situation. Apparently we had three people in need of a wheelchair with only two wheelchairs actually present and only one woman to push all three. I guess in Chicago after midnight, they hide all the wheelchairs. The gate agent promptly disappears leaving these three people to fend for themselves.
We (the crew), go in all directions trying to find another wheelchair, and as I get back to the gate I hear one of the flight attendants say “I don’t know why we have to deal with this”. Are you kidding me?
I am fully aware that it is not in my job description to chase down wheelchairs, but in the interest of not being a complete jackass, I do it anyway. Would you really want your loved ones to get stranded in an empty terminal of Chicago O’Hare in the middle of the night? There are just some things in life you don’t do, and stranding elderly people who can’t walk in an airport definitely falls in that category.
A few minutes later, everyone is on their way to baggage claim and off we go to the hotel for our layover, but this whole epsiode got me thinking. How on earth did we become such inconsiderate jerks as a society? Has it always been this way over the decades? When did America become the land of the free, home of the rude?